Electronic Recording Of Pictures On Tape

[Ed Gordon]

Electronic Recording Of Pictures On Tape

RCA’s Video Tape Recording system unveiled December 1st is destined to change the process of making motion pictures.

RADIO CORPORATION OF AMERICA, on December Ist, unveiled for the public its system of videe tape recording — electronic recording of pictures on magnetic tape— which is destined to affect the future of motion pictures as it will television.

Video tape recording, or VTR, has many advantages over photographic processes and kinescope recording. With VTR it is possible to record electroni- cally on a strip of tape and reproduce therefrom pictures in motion in black- and-white and in color, with no inter- mediate steps such as film processing and negative printing. “This new development,” said RCA’s Brigadier General David Sarnoff, “obviously holds great promise for the motion picture industry.” It also has caused some concern among cinematographers and other Hollywood technicians who wonder if electronic picture recording will mean an end to their careers. Some in the film manufacturing business and the film processing laboratories also have speculated on the system’s ultimate effect on their business. You see, video picture tape requires no developing or printing; duplicating is a simple electronic step. And instead of the conventional motion picture film, narrow plastic tape, 44 inch in width, is used.

Source: American Cinematographer, December 1953
https://archive.org/details/sim_amer...p?view=theater

Even Santa did not seeing it coming...

[Brian Fretwell]

Of course the BBC had their version in development 1952, the same time as the Ampex system. VERA (Video Electronic Recording Apparatus).But that was a linear system so the tape ran at a high speed and had to be reversed every 15 minutes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vision...ding_Apparatus
http://www.vtoldboys.com/vera.htm

[Dave Bickford]

I got my first job at a TV station right at the end of life of 2” quad video tape. Those reels were heavy!

[Osi Osgood]

Dave, what was the number of lines of resolution on that early quad tape?

[Dave Bickford]

Dave, what was the number of lines of resolution on that early quad tape?

Not 100% sure. When Sony released their hugely popular 1” tape they touted it as “90% of the quality at 50% of the price”. I seem to recall both were fairly close in regards to lines of resolution range. Perhaps this link will have the information you seek. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadruplex_videotape

[Brian Fretwell]

At the computer centre I worked at we had a tape eraser which we used for 1/2" tapes, it had a flap that could be removed to erase 2" video tapes but said that an attachment to hold them as they were slid in and out should be used. I wouldn't want to balance one of those on one had to do that, not to mention turnhng it over and rotating 90 degrees to do it again to ensure complete erasure..

[Dino Everett]

Dave, what was the number of lines of resolution on that early quad tape?

Long time Osi.....To the best of my knowledge here are the lines of resolution for the various video formats - BUT I believe that the real power in 2 inch Quad is not so much just the lines of resolution but how the information is written and read which was a better process quality wise than most of the video formats we are all familiar with.

2 inch
QUAD - 400

1 inch
SMPTE Type C – 300

3 / 4 INCH
UMATIC – 280
UMATIC SP – 340
D1 – 460
D2 – 450

1 /2 INCH
EIAJ Open reel – 300
EIAJ Open Reel COL - 240
VHS/Betamax – 250
SVHS – 400
Betacam – 300
Betacam SP – 340
Digital Betacam – 460

8mm
8mm/Video 8 – 255
Hi8 – 415

1 / 4 INCH
DV – 500
DVCAM – 530

[Osi Osgood]

Dino! Good to hear from you! A most Merry Christmas to ye!

[Dino Everett]

You as well

[Brian Fretwell]

Later there wa high band 2" to ensure the colour sub-carrier was reocrded properly. I assume that's why the question was asked about the resolution of the early quad system.

[Dino Everett]

Later there wa high band 2" to ensure the colour sub-carrier was reocrded properly. I assume that's why the question was asked about the resolution of the early quad system.

But wasn't the actual lines of resolution the same? The High-band results were just of better quality

[Brian Fretwell]

But wasn't the actual lines of resolution the same? The High-band results were just of better quality

Horizontal lines of resolution would have been better as they would have been sharper almost the same as SVHS. Low band reduced the level even of the chroma sub - carrier and restoration of programmes copied to low band have had to have work done to restore colour to an acceptable level. Of course early shadow mask TV tubes and the methods then used to remove the chroma sub-carrier would have reduced the resolution from what would have been seen on a B&W set.

SVHS being a colour under system would not have had the first of those problems if fed from a component source.